The 500 Horse Retreat
by Sobe James
Summary: There is nothing like feeling the rumble of a high power engine or like the roar of one, and Sobe is about to get the chance to change his and Shaundi's life's forever. He just has to win first.
1. Chapter 1: Some Hot Wheels

I don't own anything but the plot and my copy of_ Forza 3.  
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_Chapter 1: Some Hot Wheels_

One would think it's an easy enough job to drive a car as fast as possible down an open two miles of track, and I guess it is right up until the point where your car explodes. I only wish I knew how much that day would change my life back then. I still recall watching astounded has the lead car a black 05 Ford GT from the only non-sponsored team still competing suddenly went from a finely tune racing masterpiece to a fifty foot tall fireball.

Holy shit. Those words where the only thing I could think has the safety crews ambulance roared onto the track and rushed over to the still burning car. I stared on with 499,999 other people has the safety crew started to cover the burning remains of the car with non-flammable foam and smashed the windshield to get the driver out. "And she's alright!" The announcer the yelled. "I can't believe it Jamie Saskura is completely unharmed!" I could not take my eyes from this woman has she jumped into the bed of the safety crews pick-up. By some grace of god she didn't even get burned in the accident.

Sadly though the same couldn't be said for the car the once strong racing machine had been reduced to just the metal work and even that had been charred black. "That's enough excitement for one day." I muttered under my breath has I turned around and headed down the observatory steps into the food court. I was nearly out of the food court when I saw a new booth there was maybe a hundred people flocking to the booth to sign up for it's lottery.

"So are you signing up to?" A voice squeaked out behind me I turned around to see who spoke but I didn't see anyone and was about to turn around when the voice squeaked out again "Hey I'm down here!" needless to say I looked down to see a maybe 5'3" girl with red hair and brown eyes staring back up at me. "I don't even know what everyone's signing up for." I said down at her from my 6'4" frame to the girl "Well isn't it obvious everyone's signing up to win a race against a driver of there choice from any team, but there's a catch." "Well what is it?" She looked down at her feet before looking up and saying "Two people have to sign up together, you need a driver and a spotter.". Well that's a new one I thought to my self. "So let me guess you wanted to know if I was signing up for so you could sign up with me?". "Pretty much" She said staring even harder at her feet has her face began to turn red."Well than what are we waiting for." I said has i walked up to the sign up sheet.

"So hows this work" I asked the pimply faced teenager behind the booths counter. 'Well you put your name, your partners name, your phone numbers, your ages, and which driver you want to race against." he said counting each thing off one hand looking less than satisfied with his job. I wrote down my name and looked back at the girl. "Well" "What?" She replied to me looking confused. "Your name is..." I said waving my hand at her to hurry up "Shaundi and I'm 21" She said spelling out her name. "Your short for 21 Shaundi." I said snickering "I'm not short your just freakishly big for 22!" She snapped back at me. "Well I will see you tomorrow if we win miss Shaundi." I said walking out to the parking lot.

Thank god the rest of my day was less eventful, in fact hardly anyone came to the bar where i worked. "Sobe punch out and go home" My boss Mitch Ross said pointing back over his shoulder. "Ok boss-man I'm out" I said pushing myself off the old and scared wooden bar top I was leaning on. I garbed my leather jacket from my locker and tossed it on over my work shirt. I grabbed the keys to my old motorcycle hopped on it and rode home to my small two bedroom apartment. I couldn't sleep for most of the night my brain kept fire the question "What if you win?" into my mind. And I don't think it was talking about the lottery.

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Well that's it for now people please leave a review and any suggestions for me, and what did you think about how I started my tale.

**Sobe Out.**


	2. Chapter 2: In The Morning

_Chapter 2: In The Morning_

I awoke the next day to the feeling of knives being stabbed into my right ankle; the knives of course were actually the teeth of my 52 pound red tick hound dog. "Luara, my foot is not your chew toy!" Now let me take a second to explain something to you: there is only one thing worse then a dog chewing on your foot in the morning, and that is a very large startled dog chewing on your foot in the morning. Apparently yelling at Luara scared her awake to the point where she felt necessary to jump onto to my bed and sit on my chest panting in my face.

"Okay, I love you too, girl," I said, scratching behind Luara's ears. "Now down, girl!" I said sharply, snapping my fingers at the floor and sure enough like the well trained dog she is, she hopped down off my bed and trotted out into the kitchen and started baying for me to come and feed her. I guess that meant it's time for me to drag myself from my comfy twin size bed I didn't even bother to put sheets on. I stumbled out into hallway, grabbed the dog food and filled up Luara's bowls. At the same time, I turned on the coffee maker. While I waited for the coffee to finish being made, I grabbed the day's newspaper.

So the accident at the raceway made the front page. Seeing the scowl on my face, Luara stopped eating and nuzzled my leg that was propping me up on the counter. I scratched her head has I stared out of my kitchen window, out over the city. "What a pitiful state we're in, Luara." This city is decaying more as each day passes; it's pathetic. I was distracted from my less then happy train of thought when my cellphone buzzed on the table, where I tossed it last night before I collapsed onto my bed. I hopped off the counter and picked up my phone.

"Hello?" I said, yawning into the microphone.

"Sobe? It's good you're up; it's Shaundi."

"Shaundi, there is such a thing as caller ID, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, I was thinking we could hang out until we know if we won or not."

"Okay, Shaundi. Where do you want to meet up?"

"Well, I actually don't have a car, so could you pick me up from my house? You do know the address, right?"

"Yeah, I remember, you told me. Okay, Shaundi, I'll pick you up about twelve-ish, okay? Bye," I said as I ended the call and slipped the phone into the pocket on my black levi jeans. I poured myself a cup of black coffee before I got ready to go.

About half an hour before twelve-ish, I took my Camaro Z28 out to get Shaundi instead of my motorcycle; I figured she would enjoy a seat in a car instead of holding on for the sake of continued existence. Jumping in, I slammed the door shut and revved the engine. Within moments, I was racing down the street, past the alleys where the drug-addicts huddled over dustbin fires, past the rundown stores where odd trinkets were aimlessly being displayed in musty windows, through the catacombs of the decaying underworld of the city.

_I can't believe I live in this muck of a town._

Well, it's not exactly much of a choice to live in a rundown establishment like this. I twisted the wheel of the Camaro down the side street, leading up to the series of apartment blocks where Shaundi had told me she lived. _What was her apartment number again? 14C, that was the one._

I shove my Camaro in the first available parking space and got out, shutting and locking the door rather carefully behind me, and headed up into the apartment. I took the elevator up to Level 14, the topmost floor, where the air seemed to be the stalest. _Gods, what a run-down mess,_ I thought to myself, as I climbed out of the elevator and the strong stench of cigarette smoke greeted me. Crumpled and leaking booze cans littered the once-clean lino. It was sticky beneath my boots, and I shuddered to think who had the happy task of cleaning up here.

_How can a girl as nice as Shaundi live up here? _Well, Shaundi wasn't exactly the nicest of all girls that I could hope to meet, but she was okay.

I came up to the door. 14C, it declared in scratched and peeling letters. Charming.

I knocked lightly on the door, and almost at once a feminine voice called out, "Who is it?"

"Who do you think it is?" I inquired.

"Oh, Sobe, thank God it's you." I heard the lock to the door handle shift and click, and then the door was flung open, and a hand grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me insistently into the room.

"Make yourself comfortable," invited Shaundi, shutting the door behind me.

I stared. Her apartment was nothing like the interior of the corridors outside. The carpet was clean, not sticky, and smelled as though it was vacuumed regularly. The window was flung wide open, and fresh air (that's something new to this place) came flooding into the apartment. What I recognized to be a genuine leather sofa, facing a wide-screen Plasma TV, sat in the centre of the room. A table was set up just beneath the open window. The walls were painted pink.

"Nice place," I said feebly. If she saw the state of mine...

"Yeah, let's just say that I'm sort of rich," grinned Shaundi, as she threw herself casually onto the sofa.

"You never told me you were rich," I said to her, not moving from my place, resisting to go back to my apartment and wash my hair. I was partially afraid that, though it were a proven fact it was physically impossible, mushrooms were growing amongst the follicles.

Shaundi shrugged. "You didn't need to know, and I didn't need to say," she said simply.

"No, I mean, if you're so bloody rich, then why don't you go and get yourself a proper house - hell, a mansion?" I asked incredulously. "Instead of living in a dump of an apartment building? And betting on the lottery? I mean, what's the point? You've already got enough wealth to last you comfortably for the rest of your life."

"Hell, I don't want to be a pampered pet," snapped Shaundi.

I shrugged. "I wouldn't mind."

"Is that a hopeful glance my way?" Shaundi cocked an eyebrow. "Well, tough luck, boozer, you'll have to try your luck with another rich gal."

I sighed wearily. "I thought I was to take you out someplace?"

"Yes, you are." Shaundi picked herself up off the luxurious sofa. "Let me - "

Whatever she had been about to say next was lost when the door suddenly banged open.

And in the doorway stood the ugliest, most pathetic man I had ever seen in my life. His hair looked worse than mine, stains were all over his saggy grey shirt, his face was unshaven and there was something that looked suspiciously like vomit on his trouser leg. The smell that was coming from him was enough to make a cat sick.

"Honey...I'm home..." he slurred, half-raising a booze bottle to his lips.

" 'Honey'?" I repeated.

The man started, hearing my voice, and he turned unfocused, angry eyes onto me. "Who the 'ell is he?" he grunted, slopping beer all over the nice-smelling carpet.

"A friend, David," said Shaundi quickly, and I saw that her face looked wretched. "Look, this is - "

"I don't care who the 'ell 'e is, I want 'im out!" bellowed the drunk, angrily taking a step forward. "You've no right to be comin' into my apartment and harassing my wife!"

"Wife?" I raised an eyebrow at Shaundi.

"No, girlfriend," said Shaundi patiently. "Sobe, this is David. He's..."

"Your boyfriend," I finished in disgust. "And I thought that worms lived underground."

Maybe the idiot didn't understand. Or maybe it just took a long time for him to process what I said. In any case, he lurched unsteadily forward and jabbed his finger roughly into my chest. "Get out, you," he grunted, and the smell of stale beer washed over my face, as powerful as chloroform.

I roughly pushed his arm away and crossed my arms over my chest. "No."

I'm not sure what I'm doing now. But all I knew was that I was angry. Angrier than I had ever been in my life.

And perhaps my anger cleared the twerp's head, because he suddenly seemed to become deathly sane.

"What did you say, boy?" he growled.

"No," I repeated fearlessly.

Shaundi looked anxiously between me and her 'boyfriend'. "David - " she began.

"Shut it, Shaun!" snapped the drunk, pushing her away. He turned his attention back to me, and purposefully, he dropped the beer bottle, and all the slop within it came spilling out onto the carpet. "Now, listen, you - "

"No, you listen," I snarled. "You piss off right here and now, and I'm not going to make you eat your own teeth."

Wrong thing to say. The drunk lurched forward, and struck me a numbing blow across the head. I heard Shaundi yell in panic. I staggered backwards into the table. The lunatic was immediately on me again, but this time, I rolled, and he slammed his fist into the table.

Either this guy was a previous wrestler, or he was just insanely strong. The table buckled and splintered under the blow. I was privately relieved that my head hadn't been in the way. He'd have scrambled my brains.

"Stop it, David!" Shaundi screamed.

I lashed out, and kicked this guy right in his bloated chest. He grunted in surprise and fell backwards. Straight into a chair. And he broke it under his weight.

He sat up amidst the splintered pieces and grabbed one of the broken chair legs. Okay, this was now beginning to get serious. I flicked my eyes around for a suitable weapon.

The drunk jumped at me, randomly swinging the chair leg. I ducked, just in time. The chair leg smashed a hole in the wall.

This guy was demolishing the apartment. I picked myself off the ground and was nearly struck by the splintered chair leg. As I sped across the apartment, heading towards what looked to be a suitable defense weapon - a hatstand - I heard the drunk let out a gurgling roar. I looked over my shoulder to see the drunk randomly fling the chair leg. He was a really bad throw. It spun across the room and slammed into the corner of the TV set, which promptly fell off the wall and landed heavily on the ground. I heard the screen crack.

Okay, this was just getting ridiculous. I came here to take Shaundi out for the afternoon, not to end up demolishing her apartment with a raging drunk bull of a boyfriend. I clenched my hands into fists, and approached the boyfriend.

"Sobe, don't - " began Shaundi.

But as the drunk rather stupidly lifted his fists, and started trying to do one of those boxer-shuffles they do in the arenas, mumbling drunkenly, "Come on, whatcha got, whatcha got..."

Here's what I got. I slogged him full in the face.

And then he was on the ground, out cold. Instant KO.

I lowered my hand and stared at him, thinking that there really couldn't be someone more pathetic of a guy for Shaundi to hang out with.

"Ah...sorry about your apartment," I said to Shaundi, who was just standing speechless nearby.

She waved her hand dismissively. "Doesn't matter. I can easily repair and buy new stuff. And I'm sorry about David. He's...an aggressive-drunk."

"I noticed," I said, feeling the bruise on my jaw begin to rise. "Now that that's out of the way, what did we want to do again?"

"Go out." Shaundi looked relieved.

"And not come back here," I said to her.

She looked up in surprise. "What do you mean? This place is my home."

"I don't care. You're getting away from that idiot," I said firmly to her, giving the said man a rough kick in the ribs. "I can't even believe you're stupid enough to go out with this 'David' character."

Shaundi shook her head. "He's a pretty odd bloke. I ask that question myself a lot. But I can't leave. If we win, I'll be able to."

"Win? You could leave now. You've got a hell of money."

"Yeah, but...it's complicated," said Shaundi.

I didn't argue. I had long learned from futile attempts with my own mother as an angry adolescent that arguing with women was pointless, they always seemed to get their way in the end. "So where do you want to go?" I asked her, as she and I left the apartment.

"There's a new burger place opening up in Downtown," said Shaundi. "Ray Robertson Junior's. I hear they have jazz."

Good lord. A woman who liked burgers and jazz.

But I didn't argue with her. It'd be futile.

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Ok y'all that's it for this chapter witch by the way would not have happened this year if not for **_ShoutFinder_** who helped me come up with the idea the wrote out this chapter twice, give her a round of applause everyone she earned it.

**Sobe Out**


	3. Chapter 3: Making a Change

So here is chapter 3 for your viewing pleasure right now the story has 24 views and 5 reviews, thank you all for reading this. And another thank you to **ShoutFinder **for helping me on the last chapter seriously go to her page now. Sorry about the lateness of this chapter by the way.

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_Chapter 3: Making a Change_

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"Come on Shuandi lets go," I said to her, stepping over David's knocked out body, looking down at him with disgust and heading to the door.

"Sobe, we can't just leave him here like this; he'll steal all my stuff!" Shuandi gestured to her apartment wildly.

"Then pack some of your things and I'll call a friend of mine to come and get any furniture that you want to keep," I replied, siting down on her couch and propping my feet up on David's back, using him in place of the autumn.

"You don't understand, Sobe, even if I could get all my stuff, I have nowhere else to go!" she whined at me, looking slightly panicked. I sighed.

"Okay, I tell you what: pack one suitcase of clothing and grab anything else you need and let me worry about everything else," I said reassuringly to her as I stood up and strode over to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I said, "I'll go and call my friend Mitch and tell him to get your furniture while we are out, okay?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Shuandi looked up at me with her soft brown eyes and said, "Okay. Keep an eye on him and I will go pack." Shuandi turned away from me, took a deep breath, puffed out her chest and went to her room to pack. "That is one tough girl," I muttered under my breath, nonetheless smiling.

It the time it took Shuandi to pack I called Mitch, took a nap, and finally beat my phones version of Space Invaders. Soon I heard a shout.

"Sobe can you help me with this?" Shuandi called out to me, tugging a suitcase bigger than her into her now wrecked living room. Without talking I stood up off the leather couch and picked up her suitcase like it weighed nothing. Shuandi stared at me.

"Good lord, Sobe, how strong are you?" Shuandi questioned, her eyes going wide. I grinned.

"Working on cars almost every day does have its advantages." I took the slouch out of my back that I used only for her, straightening to my full height. Shuandi had to almost look straight up to see my eyes, raised at their full height.

As we were walking out of her apartment, David started to stir so I let the bottom of the suitcase smack into the back of his head and bounced it off the floor, returning him to his sleep. Shuandi and I made it to my 69' Z28 without further incident.

"Wow this is a hot car Sobe," Shuandi commented, walking up to it and motioning for me to open the hood, so I put her suitcase down near the trunk. Grabbing my keys from my jacket pocket I unlocked and opened the driver's side door and popped the hood open for Shuandi. "How many horses does this engine make?" she asked, pointing at the more than slightly modified engine.

"The engine makes only 310hp but with the modified transmission and drivetrain it acts like a 500hp engine, it tops out at 183 miles per hour," I listed, smiling at the memory of working day and night on it for over a month.

"Wow, Sobe I didn't know cars like this were street legal." She closed the hood with a soft click.

"As long as I don't go and drag race, every police car I see tends not to mind," I responded with a playful grin. I opened the trunk and tossed her suitcase inside, and walking back around the car I opened the driver's side door and slid into the comfortable racing seat. I waited until Shuandi did the same and clipped the six point harness together before turning the key in the ignition.

I smiled at hearing the massive v8 Chevy big block roared to life, making Shuandi jump in her seat, a little startled at just how loud the engine was. After a minute she got used to the engine's noise and I backed the car out of the parking space. As I was letting the car roll to the entrance of the parking lot I saw Mitch's pick-up pull truck towing a moving trailer pull up in front of the apartment building "Hey, Mitch just pulled up to get the rest of your stuff," I pointed out, gesturing to his truck so she could see that her things would be safe.

"Where will my stuff go?" she inquired weakly, looking up at me.

"He's going to take it to my storage unit until you get a new place," I said, pulling the car out onto the street and applying enough gas to get it up to speed with the rest of the evening traffic. I turned on the radio since Shuandi seemed to be lost in thought and set the gps to the restaurant she wanted to go to.

We drove almost all the way to Ray's in silence. I was thinking about the random nit-picky stuff I had to do when Shuandi let out a sigh and sai,d "So you know a little about me but I know almost nothing about you except for your name. Tell me about yourself."

"Well, what is it you want to know about me? Ask anything you want."

"Well..." Shuandi paused thoughtfully. "What do you do for a job? For starters is one thing I would like to know."

"Right now I'm a bartender, but I have doctorates in engineering," I replied, trying to keep my eyes on the road at the same time replying to my passenger. "I specialize in next generation engines and internal combustion." I remembered my college days and how I'd constantly excel in the technology department.

"Then why are you a bartender?" Shuandi asked incredulously. "If you're so smart, why not go and create new car engines for a living, as an engineer?"

"Because they aren't making new car engines," I responded. "Only rearranging the parts to them, granted they have applied some new technology to them over the years, like weight reduction, but that's it for the most part." I slouched back into my seat and downshifted the Camaro as we came up to Ray's parking lot.

"Then why don't you start making new engines, start your own company? You're definitely smart enough."

"Don't get me wrong; I'd love to do that, but I would need an insane amount of startup money for it to work," I replied, glancing over at her as I found a nice spot in front of the restaurant.

I hit the release on my seat belt, opened my door and got out of the Camaro; I took a second to stretch before I walked over to Shuandi's side and opened the door for her. She rolled her eyes as she got out.

"Thanks Sobe, but you know you don't have to do stuff like that for me," she said, nevertheless smiling from ear to ear.

"Nonsense Shuandi, I was raised to be a gentleman," I replied with a wolfish grin, earning a laugh from Shuandi. She lightly hit my shoulder.

"C'mon, lets go eat, you big fool," she giggled, genially smiling at me, and a light that had been absent since the apartment incident returned to her eyes.

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**Ok that's it for now please review they honestly do make writers work faster and better if we have some one that is exited for the next chapter to come out and another thanks to my new editor ShoutFinder also if you are an author that needs to get a story seen and reviewed please don't hesitate to PM myself, ShoutFinder, or Blackcurse11 we are running a community that offers that service**


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